This invention relates to suture packages, and more particularly to packages which provide for the convenient delivery of monofilament sutures in a substantially uncoiled, unlooped form.
Certain suture materials, particularly monofilaments such as catgut and polypropylene in the heavier deniers, are known to take a "set" during storage, i.e., they retain the shape of their position in the package when removed from the package. For example, when such sutures are looped, wound in the form of a coil or wound upon a reel and stored in such a condition, and suture will set to that configuration and, when removed from the package, will tend to form a number of loops or coils. Such sutures are prone to tangle and are difficult to keep separate when several sutures are being used in a single operation. It has accordingly been necessary for the nurse or surgeon removing such sutures from the package to at least partially straighten the suture by stretching it before it is ready for use.
Molded packages have been suggested for use with sutures heretofore. U.S. Pat. No. 3,338,401 for example, discloses molded laminated packages which are designed to avoid the formation of kinks and sharp bends in delicate flexible sutures. The packages of this reference are characterized by having a needle chamber located at one end of the package and a suture channel having a plurality of rather tight convolutions in the form of a spiral or modified FIG. 8 pattern over the remainder of the package. Such packages are not well suited for packaging heavier denier monofilament sutures since these less flexible sutures tend to tighten up in th convolutions of the suture channel and cannot be withdrawn from the end of the package as may the more delicate and flexible sutures for which the package was designed. This binding of the suture in the suture channel, commonly referred to as a "capstan effect," is avoided by the packages of the instant invention.
The convolutions of the packages of U.S. Pat. No. 3,338,401 impart considerable curvature to sutures which tend to take a set on storage and such sutures form loops, coils, and/or sinusoidal patterns when removed from the package. In accordance with the present invention, sutures which are prone to take a set are packaged in such a way that when removed from the package they will not be significantly looped or coiled. The packages of the present invention are designed to impart minimum curvature to the suture during storage, to provide for the removal of one or more individual sutures from a package containing several sutures, and, in a preferred embodiment, to partially remove some of the curvature during withdrawal of the suture from the package.